Lee-Ann Sutherland is senior researcher working in the Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group. Raised on a family farm in Canada, she is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a background European agrarian development, human-environment relations, and farm-level decision-making. Her current work on gentrification processes in agricultural restructuring is a progression of her research on land manager relationships with the agri-environment, where she drew on multiple theoretical perspectives, particularly Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of capital exchange, the multi-level perspective, and the theory of planned behaviour. Lee-Ann is also undertaking research on farmer engagement in renewable energy production and backyard poultry keeping.

Lee-Ann currently coordinates the PLAID H2020 project (Peer to Peer Learning:  Accessing Innovation through Demonstration) (2017-2019) and leads the governance WP on SALSA H2020 (Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security).  She also leads the Hutton social science teams in EPIC (Scottish Government's Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks) and a stream of work on agricultural restructuring and farm diversification within the RESAS Strategic Work Programme (2016-2021).  Lee-Ann was the coordinating expert for the EIP Agri Focus Group on New Entrants to Farming (2015-2016).  Lee-Ann co-ordinated the FarmPath FP7 Project and is the editor on a book on associated findings (Transition Pathways towards Sustainability of Agriculture: Case studies from Europe) (CABI, 2015). A monograph on 'Good Farming', co-authored with Rob Burton, Paul Stock and Jeremie Forney is scheduled for publication in 2018.

Lee-Ann is an elected member of the European Society for Rural Sociology Executive Committee (2013-present), and chaired the local organising committee for the ESRS congress in Aberdeen (2015).